You Have To Keep Going
by DarkandtwistyGirl
Summary: Set three years post finale. How do you continue when your world’s been torn apart? A roadtrip ends in tragedy for Veronica and a number of her friends. How do you start to rebuild your life when everything you know has been destroyed? *Complete*
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Veronica Mars or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.**_

_**Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy my newest fic.**_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Hearst College, San Diego was a bustling local college, there were over one thousand students attending the school, but only six of the thousand had been in the car, everyone else was just grateful that it hadn't been them.

* * *

It was the Thursday before the Winter quarter was due to begin, it was Veronica and her friends final year, and they had decided to take a roadtrip to Las Vegas for the weekend.

A long drive, but they were excited to go, hit the casinos for a couple of days before resuming their studies.

It was Jackie Cook, Wallace's girlfriend who had suggested the trip. She had returned from New York two years before, after Wallace finally managed through much begging and coaxing, convinced to return, and resume her studies, a year behind her friends but still, she and Wallace were living together on campus with Jackie's then four year old son, Vincent.

She and Wallace asked Wallace's mother to mind Vincent, when Wallace told his former roommate, Stosh "Piz" Piznarski about the trip, his girlfriend of three months Kylie Morrison had excitedly asked if they could come too.

Soon, Veronica Mars and her fiancé of eight months, Logan Echolls, and Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie had also been invited on the trip. Mac had wanted her boyfriend of three years, Richard "Dick" Casablancas to join them, but he had already left on his own pre-term break to Tijuana.

* * *

They packed up Logan's black Jeep Commander, a recent upgrade from his bright yellow Wrangler, with everything they would need and want for the weekend, before piling in.

* * *

The drive was long, they didn't reach Vegas until the late afternoon, it would have been later, but Logan had been driving. They had booked suites at The Mirage Hotel and Casino, where they ended up spending most of their weekend, between gambling and hanging out in the suites, enjoying the weekend of no responsibilities or obligations, just fun.

* * *

On their last night, instead of leaving early to head back to Neptune, the group opted to go out to dinner at Circus Circus, after Veronica had pointed out that they'd stayed in very classy locations all weekend, it was time to get some funny, different photos before they left, and what better place than a hotel and casino set up like a circus?

But before dinner they spent hours in the Adventuredome, which was in essence an indoor theme park.

By the time they left it was just past midnight.

* * *

But inevitably the trip had to end, they had to be back in Neptune in eight hours. As they left town, they stopped at the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, Piz and Kylie had insisted that they couldn't leave without a group picture, a memento of their trip, it would have been more trouble than it was worth to argue, and besides, secretly everyone else wanted one too.

Logan pulled the car onto the median strip, they weren't the only ones there, and they spent several minutes mucking around before they took their turn and stood in front of the sign, Veronica handed another tourist her camera, asking him to take their picture. The man obliged, and soon they were on their way with their photo in hand, or so to speak.

* * *

It was just before three am, they had just passed the small town of Barstow, California on interstate fifteen, when Veronica noticed from her seat in beside Logan, who was still driving that he was yawning, struggling to keep his eyes open, "Maybe we should just go back, stay in that town tonight, drive back tomorrow. You're falling asleep."

"I'm fine," Logan insisted, he had become more focused in his studies, and he knew that missing the first day would cause each of them hassles, and it wasn't as though anyone else could drive, everyone bar him and Veronica were sleeping in the back, exhausted, Veronica had been drinking that evening, so had he and everyone else for that matter, he shouldn't have been driving.

Veronica sighed in acceptance, if Logan thought he was okay to drive, she would have to trust him. She had just allowed her eyelids to close, when suddenly Veronica felt the car veer off course, she opened her eyes to see that Logan had fallen asleep at the wheel, and they were careening towards a heavily tree covered embankment, too fast.

Veronica made a desperate grab for the steering wheel, but it was too late, Logan's foot must have still been pushing the accelerator down, because they weren't slowing, if anything they were speeding up.

All her attempt did was cause the large car to go into a spin on the wrong side of the road, before it slammed into the trees, the impact wrapping the car around the trees.

* * *

Sometime after the accident, Veronica started to drift back to consciousness, her head hurt, and her arm was throbbing painfully.

Veronica tried to move, but she was being pinned by her seat, which had collapsed against the dash board, she tried to look around, she could just see Logan out of the corner of her eye, the car had impacted on his side first, it was crushed, he was bleeding profusely, moaning in agony.

Her heart ached, she wanted nothing more than to help her friends, to comfort her fiancé, but she could barely even move. It was then that she noticed her bag on the floor of the car, her phone on top of the contents of the bag, her uninjured arm was close to it, and after several fumbling tries she managed to get the phone.

Dialling was no easy task, she only had one hand, and her vision was pretty blurry, but she finally typed in the numbers 9-1-1, she held the phone to her ear, trying to ignore that her hand scraped the roof of the car as she did so, and listened to it ring.

Finally an emergency services operator answered her call. Jane Fremantle had been working as an operator for eleven years, there wasn't much she hadn't heard, but when Veronica Mar's terrified, hurt voice came over the line something struck her, a deep sense of unease, before Veronica had gotten past hello.

"Can I help you?" Jane maintained her professionalism, ignoring the feeling.

Veronica struggled to speak, it took a minute for her to get the words out, "car crashed, my friends, think it's bad." It wasn't too composed, but it was the best Veronica could manage.

"Where are you, miss?"

Veronica hesitated, trying to think of the name of the last town they'd passed, "interstate, just south of... Barstow. Please help."

"I'm dispatching ambulance crews now. Can you tell me how many people are injured? How many people were in the car with you?"

Again Veronica had to think, it was getting so hard to stay awake, "seven, 'ogan fell 'sleep, couldn't stop."

"Just hang on, miss. Help will be there really soon, just keep talking to me. What's your name sweetheart?"

"'ronica. Hurts, so bad."

"I know, honey. Just hang on a bit longer. What do you do Veronica?" Jane could tell from Veronica's voice that she was on the verge of passing out, and she wanted to stop her from doing that as long as she could.

"College, final year... I think..." It was so hard to focus, especially when Veronica could hear the pained cries and moans of her friends, but was unable to help them. She wasn't sure if it was worse hearing her friends suffering, or that there were less cries now, weaker. She was listening to her friends die.

"Wow, final year, how exciting. What college are you at?"

"Hearst... 'Diego." Veronica replied. It was then that she noticed a foreign sound, a siren, "cn hea' 'irens," Veronica reported to Jane, before she finally slipped out of consciousness.

* * *

Barstow was a small community, their fire department, and subsequently EMS unit were volunteer run, it had been by sheer luck that they had been gathered for a training exercise, a response drill when the call came across... multiple casualty accident.

The fire captain took the radio call, as soon as it ended, he called out to the assembled group, "Okay folks, listen up! We've got a car accident on the freeway, approximately seven injured, possibly trapped. It's reported as being just to the south, but there is no exact location. Medivac is enroute, but they're half an hour away. Let's move!"

"Is this part of the drill?" One of the volunteers felt compelled to ask, it was too big of a coincidence.

"It's not part of the drill, it's the real thing, so move!"

* * *

Jackie had been sitting right at the back of the seven seater, alongside Wallace. It was one of the fold down seats, higher than the others. One of the many trees the car had impacted had fallen onto the roof of the car, crushing it, Wallace was on top of her, shielding her, she could vaguely remember being woken by a the car suddenly veering off course, and then Wallace had pushed her down, protecting her with his body.

She was covered in blood, everything hurt, but the blood wasn't all hers, Wallace was still on top of her, he wasn't moving, as far as she could tell, he wasn't breathing.

The pain was excruciating, she was screaming out in pain, but no one heard her.

Her last thought was, "_Oh god, I'm dying, this is it. I can't leave my son, what'll happen to him, he needs me. I love him."_

* * *

The Barstow fire and EMT crews arrived just minutes after the call. Upon seeing the scene, some people exclaimed in shock, others crossed themselves, prayed.

It was horrific, the wreckage bore no resemblance to any kind of car, the left hand side was crumpled around trees, the car was less than half its full width, the roof had been crushed, windows were all smashed.

It seemed impossible that anyone could be alive.

They'd never seen anything like it, they hoped they never would again.

The crews got straight to work, prying open doors, cutting the tree that was on the roof, so they could pull it off, and remove the roof in a hope of rescuing survivors.

They could see the group of young adults in the car, but it was impossible to tell what condition they were in, all they could do was work as quickly as they could to access the car's passengers.

When they finally managed to clear enough of the wreckage to reach the group, the EMT volunteers got straight to work.

Five of the car's passengers, including the driver had been killed, they had suffered massive injures, there was nothing they could do.

The front seat passenger, Veronica was still alive, unconscious but hanging on. Her head had hit the windscreen, and was bleeding profusely, she also had a severely broken arm, the broken bones had been forced through her skin by the impact.

They got her onto an oxygen mask, started two IVs of saline to compensate for the blood loss, wrapped her head and arm wounds as best they could, placed a cervical collar around her neck, , and lift her out of the wrecked car.

The passenger in the back of the car, Jackie was barely alive when they finally reached her, but in the fifteen minutes it took to free her, she bled to death.

* * *

**_TBC... If you ask nicely_**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Veronica Mars or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.**_

_**In the next couple of chapters I'm really trying to show just how much devastation a car accident can cause, the ripple effects felt afterwards, not just by the victims and their immediate families, but by whole communities.**_

_**I thought of this fic in light of an accident that happened near Melbourne, a few hours from where I live, six people were in the car, one girl survived, she was literally trapped under the dead bodies of her friends, her brother was amongst the dead, supposedly he tried to protect her from the impact. The paramedics said that the girl was lucky to be alive, it was the worst accident they had seen. It struck a chord for me, a group of friends killed in an instant, I knew I had to write this. A reminder of how easily lives are lost on the roads.  
**_

_**Okay, now on with the story  
**_

* * *

**Chapter 2  
**

Veronica was rushed to the Barstow Community Hospital by ambulance, where they worked feverishly to keep her stable while they waited for the Medivac helicopter to arrive to transport her to a bigger hospital, they were barely equipped to handle a broken wrist, let alone a major trauma.

* * *

Keith Mars, Veronica's father had been asleep at his sometimes girlfriend, Alicia Fennel, Wallace's mother's house, when he got the call.

His phone startled both himself and Alicia from their slumber, Alicia was closer, and so she sleepily answered it, "Hello?"

An official sounding voice came over the line, "Is this Keith Mars' number?"

"It is, what's wrong? What's happened?" Alicia began to worry, if Veronica had been hurt, maybe Wallace was too.

"I really need to speak with Mr Mars."

"Fine," Alicia sighed as she handed the phone over to Keith, she then listened into the conversation.

"Mr Mars, this is Kaitlin Tyler, I'm a doctor at University of Southern California Hospital, we have your daughter Veronica here."

"Veronica?! What happened? Is she okay?!" Keith asked in panic.

"There was a car accident, Mr Mars. I can't give you details over the phone, is it possible for you to come?"

"Of course, of course. But please, just tell me, is she okay?"

"Critical, but stable. She's just been taken up to surgery."

Alicia looked at Keith pleadingly, he then asked, "Veronica was on a trip with her friends, are they all alright?"

"I'm sorry, Mr Mars, I cannot give that information out."

The sadness in the doctor's voice spoke volumes. They knew that someone hadn't made it, but they had no idea how bad it truly had been.

* * *

Shortly after, after a very brief conversation and packing their bags, Keith and Alicia were on their way to Los Angeles, with Alicia's younger son, Darrell, and Jackie's son, Vincent in tow, rushing to make the six-thirty flight.

* * *

The county coroner arrived two hours after the accident for the bodies of the young group of friends, it was a numb sense of horror in the air as he and his assistant took body after body out of the wreckage, and over to the van.

It was senseless, why these kids?

Why had this happened?

* * *

It was up to the Neptune county sheriff's office to inform the families of the victims. Deputy Leo D'Amato, Keith's second in command was in the office when they received the call, he had been informed that a group of young adults from Neptune had involved in a car accident, and that he would need to inform the families.

He took out a pen and paper, and was preparing to write down the victims particulars, but when the caller read out the first name, he paused.

"Veronica Mars," The person didn't notice, and continued with the list, "Wallace Fennel, Logan Echolls, Cindy Mackenzie. Also Stosh Piznarski and Kylie Morrison, but their families are in Colorado and Arizona, so local authorities there will make the notifications."

Leo was still in shock, the caller had said that they were victims, he took that to mean they had died, they had all died. If Veronica was dead, how would he break this news to his boss, Keith Mars, Veronica's father?

But then, the caller told him, "There was only one survivor, Veronica Mars. Apart from that they are all deceased."

Leo was relieved to hear that Veronica had survived, he still cared about her.

But he didn't have time to think about it as he began the torturous chore of informing families.

* * *

First it was Mac's parents, Natalie and Sam Mackenzie. He raised his hand to the door, and knocked, after a moment he heard a woman call out, "Just a second."

A moment later a middle aged woman opened the door, as soon as she saw the young deputy standing on her porch she became fearful, "Oh god, what's happened?!"

"Mrs Mackenzie?" Leo had to make sure before he broke the news.

"Yes," Natalie murmured.

"I'm very sorry, there's been an accident. Your daughter,"

"Sam!" Natalie turned around and called up the stairs to her husband.

He came running after hearing his wife's panicked cry.

They held onto each other, seeking comfort as Leo broke the news, "Your daughter, Cindy was killed last night in a car accident. Again, I'm very sorry."

First they cried, screamed in agonising grief. Then they just sobbed, clung to each other, grieving.

"Mom, Dad?! What's wrong?" A child's voice broke in, Mac's little brother, Ryan.

* * *

Then Leo went to Alicia Fennel's house, but there was no response, they had already left.

* * *

And as for Logan, who was there to inform, it took Leo some time before he found where Logan's adopted sister Trina, and also his half brother Charlie.

* * *

Trina had rebuilt the family mansion, where she now lived. It was a palace, but it couldn't protect Trina from the devastating news.

First she had tried to take it in, maintaining her composure, but as soon as Deputy D'Amato had left she crumpled, right then and there by the front door, and for hours she just stayed on the floor, crying brokenly, despite her attitude, she did love her baby brother, and now he was gone.

* * *

Charlie's response to the news was minimal, or at least on the outside, it hurt him more than he would admit. He had no other family, and finding out that his brother, the man he had only just started to get to know, it was agonising.

* * *

Word spread like wildfire in Neptune, and beyond. By mid-morning, news had reached Hearst College's campus, the news that six of their fellow students were dead, another seriously injured, shook the community.

Classes were cancelled, councillors were called in to support students and staff, police were interviewing students and professors who had known members of the group, seeking a cause of the accident, any information they could get, and of course, reporters were swarming, after all, future hall of famers' baseball player, Terrence Cook's daughter was dead, a-list actor, Aaron Echolls' son as well, the others never did get as much publicity.

* * *

To Veronica, no time passed before she began to regain consciousness. She could feel a tube invading her throat, but also both her hands being held gently.

She just floated for hours in a semi conscious state, unable to fully wake up, but then, finally she managed to draw her eyes open.

Keith jumped up instantly, moving into Veronica's line of sight, "Oh my god, thank you. Veronica, you're alright. Thank god, you're alright."

Veronica tried to speak, to comfort her distraught father, to ask what was wrong, the last thing she could remember was playing blackjack in a casino with Logan, but that was it, she couldn't even ask what had happened.

She had no idea that nine weeks had passed.

* * *

When Keith and Alicia had arrived at the hospital, they were directed upstairs to the surgical waiting room, where they waited six hours before one of the surgical residents came out to speak with them.

Phil Moore was a fourth year resident, he wasn't unfamiliar with breaking the bad news. He greeted Keith and Alicia politely, "Mr Mars, Ms Fennel, hello I'm Dr Moore. I have been assisting Dr Rhodes on Veronica's surgery."

"How is she?" Keith asked urgently.

Phil sat down opposite the couple, before telling them, "Veronica sustained severe injuries in the accident. A fractured skull, which caused some swelling in her brain. A ruptured spleen, and also a severely broken arm. Her condition is critical, but stable. Dr Rhodes is closing now, Veronica will be moved to the intensive care unit as soon as she gets out of surgery. We won't know how well she will recover, if she will recover for some time yet."

"Doctor, please, my son, Wallace Fennel, was he hurt too? They were on a roadtrip with some friends." Alicia asked worriedly, no one had been able to give her any information on her eldest son.

The young doctor paused, his hesitance spoke volumes, "Ms Fennel, Mr Mars, Veronica was the sole survivor of a major car accident. From what I understand, six people travelling in the car with her were killed."

Alicia was silent for a moment, before she suddenly cried out, "NO, NO!!! Oh god NO!!! My baby!!"

Keith stood, and moved to Alicia's side, he held her tight, allowing her to cry into his shoulder. Darrell and Vincent lay sleeping, oblivious on one of the nearby couches. Unaware their worlds had just been turned upside down.

* * *

The next morning it was front page news all over southern California, some in Denver and Arizona, home towns of the other victims. One of the articles, this one in the San Diego Times, read.

_**Tragedy Strikes Home**_

_Across the country, people are in mourning today as the news of a tragic car accident is broken. In the early hours of yesterday morning a group of young students from local institution, Hearst College were critically injured and killed in a horrific car accident south of Barstow, California, which first responders could only describe as the worst they had seen, practically impossible to survive._

_The group are reported as having been returning from an end-of-break trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. They were due to return to their studies that day, it would have been their final year. The late a-list actor Aaron Echolls' youngest son, Logan was among the victims, as was hall of famer member, Terrence Cook's only child, Jacqueline, better known as Jackie, and her boyfriend, Wallace Fennel, a promising young basketball player from Hearst. Also among the victims were students from interstate, Stosh Piznarski, known to his friends as Piz, Kylie Morrison, and local girl, Cindy Mackenzie. The horror smash was only survived by one, Veronica Mars, who is reported as being in extremely critical condition in a Los Angeles hospital after suffering major head injuries._

_Investigations by Los Angeles police are ongoing, but driver fatigue and speed are reported as being possible causative factors, the possible of drug or alcohol involvement has neither been confirmed, nor denied at this time._

In favour of accompanying the article with a photo of the wreckage, the newspaper opted to use a picture which had been leaked to the press; it was from Veronica's camera. The caption read, _"Happy memories, or so it had seemed. This photo of the group of friends was retrieved from one of the victims' cameras. What was to be a keepsake is now a tragic sight, a reminder of just how fragile life is."_

That picture of all of them posing for the camera in front of the Las Vegas sign, laughing, messing around, not a care in the world, tugged at the heart strings of every reader of that day's paper.

* * *

Dick Casablancas received the news of his girlfriend's death the next morning, in the form of that very paper; he had been walking to his first class of the day, when an acquaintance came over to him holding a newspaper.

"Hey man, didn't know you could get up before five in the evening," Dick joked.

"Very funny," Trey agreed humorously, he then with sadness asked Dick, "You haven't seen the news have you?"

"Do I look like someone who watches the news?" Dick was still joking, trying to break his mate out of what he saw as a simple melancholy mood.

Trey sighed, placing a hand on Dick's upper arm, before he told him, "Mac's dead, Dick. She was killed in a car crash up near LA. Sorry."

Dick stood there, silent.

He was in shock.

"When?" Dick asked out of the blue.

"Night before last, the paper said that it was a road-"

Dick interrupted, "A roadtrip, she went to Vegas with Ronnie, Logan, and some of their pals. She was meant to come back yesterday, I thought she just gotten caught up in Vegas. She can't be dead."

"I'm so sorry, dude. Are you okay?"

"She... We were gonna have a baby, they're both dead." Dick was crushed by the sheer grief, his brother had committed suicide, his dad was long gone, and his mother couldn't care less what happened to him, the only family he had was dead, his girlfriend and their unborn child were gone. And if that wasn't bad enough, Logan too was dead, his best friend was dead when he needed him most.

He had lost everything, everyone he cared about.

* * *

**_TBC...  
_**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Veronica Mars or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.**_

_**Enjoy**_

* * *

**Chapter 3  
**

The next day a memorial service was held by the college, for the students and staff to share their grief, and to remember their classmates.

* * *

Another was held in Neptune, which was attended by many of their former teachers, classmates, acquaintances, friends and families.

* * *

In contrast, Dick spent his day in the company of a number of bottles of liquor, drowning his sorrow. While Keith and Alicia, Darrell and Vincent stayed at Veronica's side, praying that she would pull through, whilst still mourning their loss of Wallace.

* * *

It started as one person calling the sheriff's office in Neptune, asking if it was possible to donate money to the families of the crash victims, to help pay for funerals and other expenses, soon there was a large collection of donation money being held at the sheriff's office for the families, some would need it more than others, but the sentiment, the fact that hundreds of people had been compelled to find a way to help the families.

* * *

The Los Angeles police's crash unit had barely finished clearing the wreckage before the first announcement was made that a full scale inquest would be made to investigate the stretch of road, among other things, assess whether this tragedy could have been avoided.

* * *

The funerals for the victims from Neptune were held one after the last for the next three days, all were held at a local crematorium and cemetery.

* * *

First was Logan's. Trina had organized it, and that showed, it was a massive affair, 'a-list'ers and paparazzi were everywhere, but ultimately she and Charlie couldn't have cared less as they farewelled their brother.

* * *

Then it was Mac's. Her family sat in the front row as their pastor presided over the funeral, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, there must have been twenty all together, Mac had probably spent her time avoiding them, introverted, in her room, working on her computer.

The Sinclair's, Mac's biological parents were there too, sitting towards the back of the crowded chapel, Madison was bored and it showed, she didn't want to be there, but their parents and younger sister Lauren were grieving for their lost child, the child they never got to know.

While Dick hadn't made it out of his apartment to attend Logan's funeral, he was at Mac's, but he was still hung over, if not still drunk. He was the only person on the planet, apart from his acquaintance whom had broken the news to him that knew that he was not only mourning the loss of his girlfriend, but his unborn child. Even he had only known for a month.

What good would it have done to have told her parents? It would only hurt them more.

* * *

Jackie and Wallace's funerals were held together, many people gathered to grieve the loss of the young couple.

Keith had left his daughter's bedside to support Alicia and the kids through the difficult day.

Jackie's father, Terrence Cook had paid for Jackie's mother, Kim Waters to fly across the country to be at their only child's funeral. It was the first time in twenty-one years that they had been in the same room, but they still were holding each other, grieving.

* * *

No parent should have to bury their child. It wasn't how life was supposed to be.

* * *

It took months for the dust to settle, for life to return to normal in the community, at least for most people, for the families lives would never return to normal.

* * *

Terrence Cook reunited with his ex-love, Jackie's mother, Kim, and to Alicia's sadness, they took custody of Jackie's young son, whom she had seen as her grandson, but it was their right as his closest living relatives, the only real family he had left.

They moved away from Neptune, it held too many memories, the tabloids reported that they were living in a small town several hours from Boston, Massachusetts.

* * *

Dick continued to drink himself out of his pain, he dropped out of college, quit his life in favour of drinking.

* * *

Mac's parents tried to stay together, they did for a couple of months, but losing a child was more than they could bear, and they separated, her mother and little brother stayed in Neptune, while her father moved to Seattle, Washington.

* * *

Keith and Alicia stayed together, seeking comfort from each other, Alicia and Darrell officially moved in with Keith, but they had been staying in a hotel near the hospital with Keith, so they could be near Veronica, who was still on life support, her life hanging in the balance.

* * *

Just days before Veronica woke up, Keith and Alicia had gotten into a fight. They had been waiting outside Veronica's ICU room while a nurse tended to her, Alicia was trying to get her life back, to find a way to get past the tragedy, for her and her surviving son, but Keith wasn't ready to give up on Veronica, even though the doctors had warned him that she may never regain consciousness.

More than a few hurtful, angry words were exchanged.

Alicia had wanted to, and in the end she did move back to Neptune with Darrell in an effort to give him some semblance of a normal life.

But Keith had been determined to stay with his daughter, he couldn't leave her so far from home, and just go on with his life.

* * *

Trina and Charlie's lives remained much the same, but they were left with a hole in their hearts, which they knew could never be filled.

* * *

Keith had been overjoyed when Veronica regained consciousness, but it wasn't all good news.

* * *

Nurses and doctors had rushed into the room, pushing Keith out to the waiting room, when he returned, Dr Rhodes, Veronica's neurologist was the only person apart from one nurse left in the room, he sat down with Keith in two plastic chairs against the wall, before he told to overwrought father, "Veronica is stable. We had to sedate her, but she had regained full consciousness. I think she will pull through."

"Oh thank god," Keith sighed in relief, but then came the but.

"But a neuro exam revealed that she has severe weakness down the right side of the body. There is also the possibility of cognitive and behavioural complications. And we already know that Veronica has post-traumatic epilepsy, but that's under control with the medication, she hasn't had a seizure in three weeks, that's really good. Hopefully there will see an improvement in her condition in the next six to twelve months. I'm sorry to say that it's a waiting game, we'll take it a day at a time, and see how things go."

All Keith could do was go back to waiting, waiting for his daughter to wake up from her medicated slumber, to see if what the doctor had said was right, if she was brain damaged.

He wouldn't accept it until he'd seen it himself, he refused to believe that his smart, funny, quirky grown up child could have suffered injuries so deep in her brain that she may never be who she was before.

* * *

Unfortunately the doctor's and Keith's fears were confirmed, when Veronica woke up several hours later, she was groggy for a while, and Keith had waited patiently, ignoring her unclear speech, her agitated movements with her right arm and leg, the distinct lack of movement in her other limbs, or the left side of her face.

But once she was fully awake, he could no longer ignore it, she was trying desperately to speak, to seek answers as to where she was, what had happened, but the words wouldn't come out right, they were too unclear, garbled, slurred.

She quickly got frustrated, and Keith tried to calm her, but she only got angrier. She started to scream, to scream at her father, scream what even though she couldn't form the words was unmistakably numerous profanities.

Keith was shocked by her outburst, it was so out of character, but he pushed his fear and surprise aside for the moment, knowing that he had to calm his daughter. He tried to sound calm and reassuring, but he failed, badly, "It's okay, honey, you're alright. You're in hospital, but everything's going to be fine, you're going to be fine, just try to rest." He was trying to reassure himself just as much, if not more than her.

* * *

It took Veronica only fifteen minutes to calm down, but it was nothing that Keith said or did, or anything that the nurses who came when they heard Veronica screaming did, she just settled.

* * *

Afterwards, one of the nurses pulled Keith aside, and explained that it was part of the brain injury, it was technically known as emotional lability, an inability to regulate emotions, resulting in exaggerated or inappropriate emotions, a slight sadness would cause hysterical crying, a barely funny joke would have her laughing madly.

They could really only try to help her regain control, try to help her calm down.

Hopefully it would lessen over time, she would get back to normal, hopefully everything would go back to normal.

Keith hated that Veronica couldn't communicate, but in some ways it was a blessing, he didn't have to tell her that the love of her life and her closest friends were dead.

* * *

But the next day, one of the ICU nurses gave Veronica a pen and paper, so that she could communicate, the first thing she wrote was, "Logan?"

Keith forced back tears as he told her, "I'm so sorry, honey. He died."

Veronica was silent, she then wrote, "Everyone?"

That broke Keith, he was silently crying, tears running down his face, as he told Veronica, "No one else survived, I'm so sorry, honey, they're dead.

He was expecting tears, but then out of the blue, Veronica started to laugh, she was laughing hysterically, but at the same time there were tears rolling down her face.

Sighing, Keith sat down on the side of the bed, and wrapped his arms around Veronica. He just held her, rocking her gently as she laughed.

When she finally stopped laughing, she began to cry, not over the top, just distraught. Her friends were dead.

* * *

Veronica cried for hours, it hurt more than she ever thought possible, her friends were dead, her fiancé was dead. She and Logan were planning to get married that Summer, the fifth of September, their love had been epic.

It was over, and she couldn't even talk to anyone about it.

She wanted to go to funerals, say goodbyes.

It didn't even occur to her that they had been dead going on ten weeks.

* * *

Just one week after Veronica awoke from her coma, she was deemed stable enough to be transferred to a rehabilitation centre, which also served as a nursing facility, Rolling Meadows Center.

Veronica was still distraught, but she wasn't exactly in a position to fight anyone. The doctors, Keith as well weren't even sure that Veronica was fully aware, and comprehending what was happening.

But she was, she just couldn't communicate it.

It was still an hour and a half drive from Neptune, but it would be better for everyone to have Veronica closer to home, and to have her somewhere where they could truly work to help her recover.

* * *

But leaving the hospital wasn't an easy or happy experience for Veronica, everything had been going well, the medical transport team loaded her onto a gurney, and took her downstairs to the ambulance.

They got as far as starting the engine before Veronica suddenly began to scream and thrash around.

Keith was sitting in the back of the van with her, he was shocked by her sudden outburst, but what concerned him more was that it didn't stop, she kept screaming, her voice was distorted, her movements jerky, but it was unmistakably a panicked response.

The driver stopped the engine, and came to help, but it wasn't until he and his partner had lifted Veronica out of the transport van, and some distance away before she began to settle.

"What was that?!" Keith asked worriedly from where he stood beside Veronica, comforting her.

"Has she had panic attacks before? I think that's what just happened. She was hurt in a vehicle accident, correct?"

"Yeah, but what're we meant to do? She's got to be moved down the rehab centre."

The transporters started to move Veronica's gurney back towards the hospital. "We'll see if the doctors can give her a sedative to allow us to move her. At the rehabilitation centre, they might be able to help her more."

* * *

A powerful sedative later, Veronica was once again placed in the van, without incident this time.

* * *

Alicia woke up early, she pushed the doona away, and hauled herself out of bed, she was still exhausted, the only way she slept was kept in a bottle beside her bed.

Quetiapine, it was her new best friend.

It hurt more than words can describe for Alicia to have lost her eldest son, Wallace, her surviving son didn't truly understand, he knew that Wallace wasn't there, but she wasn't sure that he understood the concept of death.

Honestly she couldn't cope to have that conversation with her youngest son, it was all she could do to get out of bed in the morning, to do the mundane tasks that made up her life.

She would wake Darrell in the mornings, make him breakfast, pack his lunch, drive him to school. As soon as he was at school though, she would go back to the apartment, and break down, sit on the couch and cry until she had to pick Darrell up from school. She would make him a snack, start dinner, tell Darrell to stop watching TV, to do his homework, give him dinner, get him ready for bed, tuck him in, and then she would take the sedative, and the cycle started again.

But this day was different, Alicia was making breakfast for Darrell, simple toast and eggs, when the phone rang.

It was Keith. He and Veronica were in a transport ambulance heading towards San Diego, to a rehabilitation and nursing facility, they would be there in four hours.

Would she meet him there?

* * *

For the first time in nine days, Alicia didn't go straight home after dropping Darrell at school; she went to the shopping centre.

She bought a bunch of flowers, a ridiculous bouquet of colourful balloons, a oversized teddy bear, a pair of pyjamas, camouflage patterned, and a pair of black ugg boots.

It wasn't for her though, or maybe in a way it was.

* * *

She then drove back to the apartment, took Veronica's doona off her bed, her pillow too, she gathered up a duffel bag of various items for Veronica, tooth brush, tooth paste, hair brush, underwear, her portable speakers and a few of her CDs.

Veronica had been Wallace's best friend since they'd come to Neptune. Now Veronica was hurt, and she had said some awful things to Veronica's father, her boyfriend.

It was the least she could do to welcome them back.

* * *

Alicia left everything in her car, when she got to the centre, she went to the reception, and she explained what she wanted to do. They gladly gave her the number of the room Veronica would be going into.

Alicia spent the next hour and a half unpacking everything she had brought into the room, putting clothes in drawers, placing the flowers in a vase on the side table, switching the hospital linens for the ones she had brought from home, finally she placed the teddy bear on the end of the bed, and went outside to wait for the ambulance to arrive. By her count it would only be minutes now.

From that day on, Alicia focused all her energy into helping Veronica and Keith, and supporting Darrell, taking him out on weekends, playing with him in the pool. It didn't stop it hurting, but it did help.

Alicia was waiting out the front of the centre when Veronica and Keith arrived. Keith stepped out of the back of the van as one of the transporters pulled the door open.

He nearly ran to Alicia, they had both missed each other terribly, more than they would admit. They embraced right there in the driveway of the centre, as Veronica was unloaded from the back of the ambulance.

Keith gently kissed Alicia on the cheek, before pulling slightly, greeting Alicia, "Alicia, I'm so sorry. Oh god, I've missed you," He stroked her hair, and gently asked, "How are you?"

"It's not easy," Alicia said, putting on a brave face, this day was not to be about her. She then redirected Keith's focus, "How's Veronica? How was the drive?"

* * *

**_TBC..._**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Veronica Mars or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.**_

_**Thanks for the reviews!**_

_**Enjoy**_

* * *

**Chapter 4  
**

Keith and Alicia walked side by side through the centre behind the gurney Veronica was lying on, still in a medicated slumber.

"The drive was okay. We had some problems starting out, they had to give Veronica a sedative to get her here, but it was alright. She's alright, I suppose."

"I'm sorry about everything that happened back at the hospital, grief, you know. If we can, I just want to put it past us..." Alicia then trailed off, thinking about what Keith had just said, "What do you mean, you suppose? Veronica is alright, isn't she?"

Keith tried to remain positive as he explained, "She woke up last week, which is great, but there is damage... She's got some weakness on her right side, her emotions are all over the place, there's some problems with her speech, she can't really talk, the doctor thinks that there's probably some memory loss, but because she can't talk, it's hard to really know. We're hoping for the best, it'll be alright, that's why she's here, to get better, she'll be alright. I wasn't sure you'd be here."

Alicia simply moved closer to Keith, and wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked, silent.

Keith had been stunned when he saw Veronica's room, he had been expecting a hospital like room, it still was, there was a hospital bed against one wall, the furniture was clearly that of a hospital environment. But Veronica's bedding was on the bed, the room was filled with Veronica's possessions, flowers, balloons, and a giant teddy bear.

"Alicia..." Keith murmured in appreciation and surprise. "You shouldn't have done this, it's too much."

"I needed to," Alicia told him simply, "It's what Wallace would have done, what he would've wanted done, to take care of his best friend. I'm just doing what he would've wanted, I don't think he would've wanted me to be sad, to sit around crying."

Keith embraced Alicia comfortingly as tears welled in her eyes.

* * *

They waited patiently there until Veronica finally began to wake.

It was now par for the course to Keith when Veronica woke up agitated, some might have said aggressive, it was a nice change when she was waking up from the medicated sleep, drifting slowly back to consciousness, calmly.

"Hi honey," Keith welcomed her back warmly as he rubbed the back of her hand absentmindedly with his thumb.

* * *

Not long after Veronica woke up, one of the nurses, Carmen Sanchez came to meet with her, Keith and Alicia. She greeted them warmly making them feel at ease, before moving on to explaining the routines and such of the centre, the assessment process that Veronica would undergo before commencing therapy.

It was going to be an intensive process, over the next couple of days, Veronica would meet with a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a speech and language pathologist, and a neuropsychologist.

They would assess what services they could offer to help her recover, they would then set up for Veronica to start working with them as often as they could, the more work they could do, the more her brain would be able to form new pathways, relearn everything she had lost.

* * *

First it was the physical therapist, Jordan Price, who offered to work to improve Veronica's mobility, hopefully get her walking. Then the speech and language pathologist, Enya Louie, who offered to assist Veronica in regaining her ability to speak, and in collaboration with the occupational therapist, Mark Webber, they would help her with the thought processes and such that they believed were damaged, the occupational therapist also offered to help her relearn some fine motor skills, in her weakened side especially, things like writing clearly, brushing her hair, many other things.

They all seemed nice, and keen to help, it gave Keith confidence that moving Veronica here had been the right decision.

Veronica began rehabilitation the very next day, it quickly became evident that it was going to be a long, painful process.

Not necessarily one that Veronica wanted to make work. It hurt so much inside, that she could barely get out of bed in the morning, she felt nothing.

Some days she wished that she had died along with her friends.

* * *

Grief was a strange thing, sometimes Dick would wake up and he would feel alright, but then he'd find some of Mac's clothing; neither of them had been great housekeepers. Or someone would ask him how he was, or worse still, someone who didn't know of Mac's death would ask him how they both were, what they'd been doing.

Dick spent weeks just going in circles, sobering up, feeling alright for a while, something triggering him again, drinking, feeling worse, more drinking, passing out.

* * *

News of the accident eventually reached Betina Casablancas, Dick's mother. She had just gotten back from spend three months in Europe with her new husband and replacement children.

It had crossed her mind just to let it go, Dick was an adult, surely he could take care of himself, and she knew he didn't want her around.

But she had to go, her eldest son's girlfriend had been killed in an awful car accident, and from what the friend who'd told her of the accident had said, Dick was "rather distraught".

* * *

Betina had nearly given up on waiting for Dick to answer the door, when he finally stumbled out. His breath reeked of alcohol, it looked like he hadn't changed his clothes in days, and a quick peek inside the apartment revealed that it hadn't seen the light of day, let alone been cleaned in months.

"Oh Dick, sweetheart!" Betina was appalled, but not so appalled that she might possibly mess up her makeup, or her expensive clothes.

* * *

In contrast, Dick soon found himself in a very different kind of rehab centre to the one Veronica was struggling in every day, drug and alcohol rehab, taking him there was the most parent-like thing Betina had done in years.

She had called in a cleaner for the revolting dump Dick had been living in, and organized for Dick to be admitted to an alcohol and drug rehab centre.

Dick had not been willing, but that hadn't stopped her, she had paid two campus security men to forcibly put Dick in her car, on a towel of course.

Child locks had been her friend, as she drove to Sunrise Clinic, a deceptively cheerful name, three hours away from Neptune; Dick cursed and screamed the whole way.

* * *

After checking him in, Betina went back to Neptune, checked that the cleaner had done their job; they had, the apartment was spotless, though there was a strong smell of air freshener and cleaning products.

After that, she went to the airport, and left town.

A great parent, really.

* * *

Dick fought the staff at the rehab centre, he wanted nothing to do with them, there was no chance that he would open up to them.

The other people weren't so bad, or so he thought.

There was one guy, not much older than Dick, he'd been there a month, cocaine was his drug of choice. Luke, first name's only.

They shared a room for a couple of weeks, it sounds cliché, but after a particularly difficult group session, Luke was upset. At first Dick just called out, in no uncertain terms telling him to shut up, but then Luke started talking.

"What the hell was that psych doing today!? What stage of recovery do we think we're in? Making us publicise that shit! I hate the bitch! She doesn't have a clue!"

Despite himself, Dick replied, "I know, man! I have to go sit in her fucking office every day, listen to her going on about wanting to help. It's bull. If she'd been through half the shit I have, she'd be drinking too."

"I know. My dad beat me every freakin' day, raped me. And I'm just meant to deal, and move past it. Whatever."

Dick couldn't believe he was saying this, but, "My brother killed a bunch of people from school, blew up a bus, then he jumped off a building, my dad took off before the IRS could catch him for fraud, my girlfriend and best friend got killed in a car smash. Mac, that's my girlfriend, she was pregnant, nineteen weeks."

* * *

The next day Dick learned a valuable life lesson, don't share personal information with someone you don't truly trust, when he was approached by one of the unit's nurses, Clara.

"Richard, would you please come speak with me?"

Dick of course minded, but he had nothing better to do, and was too tired to pick a fight, he'd save his strength for his session with Dr Lovell.

Clara led Dick into a vacant room, and prompted him to sit down, it was no coincidence that she placed herself between him and the door. "Richard, would you like to tell me about your girlfriend, Mac? Or the baby? Your brother, your friend?"

Dick was stunned for a moment, how could that bastard have ratted on him to the staff?! "Go to hell. You have no idea."

"How long had you and Mac been together?"

"Screw you."

"How about your brother, what can you tell me about him?"

"Get fucked."

"Did you only start drinking after the car accident? Or was it earlier?"

"Piss off."

They kept going for some time, before Dick finally broke.

"Had you thought about names for the baby?"

Dick had been standing at the opposite side of the small room from Clara, but he sat down upon hearing this question. They had thought about it a lot, one night he and Mac had laid on the couch together, laughing as the baby kicked, they had started talking about names.

Neither one was keen to name it after their families, for a boy Dick liked Jacob, maybe David, for a girl, maybe Jodi, or Kaitlyn, Mac was set on Ben for a boy, Sophia for a girl.

They were meant to find out the sex at their twenty-two week ultrasound; Dick supposed he would never know.

Dick was silent for a long time before he told her, "We were meant to find out the sex in three weeks, then the accident... Mac was so sure it was a boy, she wouldn't let me even suggest that it might be a girl. She wanted to name him Ben."

"Ben, I have a nephew named Ben. Your girlfriend sounds like a strong sort of person, what was she like?"

"She was smart, loads smarter than me. She'd already been recruited by the feds to work in computer forensics when she finished college." Dick paused for a minute, before he told the nurse, "They were coming back from a trip to Vegas, Mac had wanted me to go, but I went to TJ. I saw on the news a few weeks back, they reckon Logan, he was my best mate, they think he fell asleep at the wheel, the only person who can tell them for sure what happened, Veronica, that's Logan's girlfriend is in a coma at some hospital in LA. It was Logan, Mac, Veronica, four more guys."

Clara remembered reading about that accident, the picture of the group flashed into her mind.

"So what happens now? I've told you all that, can I get out of here?"

* * *

Veronica spent a grand total of ten weeks in hospital and twenty-three weeks in the rehabilitation centre, before she was allowed to return to Neptune.

All those weeks of rehab had paid off though. Veronica's speech was close to normal, a slight slur, but nothing that couldn't be managed, as long as she stayed calm, took her time. Her right arm was still minimally functional, but her leg was strong enough for her to walk with the aid of braces on her ankle and knee to prevent it from buckling under her. She needed a walker, at very least a cane to maintain her stability. To that day she couldn't remember anything between being at the casino and waking up in the hospital, but that seemed to be the extent of her memory loss. Her emotions were still an issue, especially if she was under pressure or stress. One of the hardest problems to manage was the panic attacks, no one could so much as suggest that Veronica go in a car, let alone actually be driven somewhere, without her panicking, mild sedatives were used when they had to."

Her age had helped, the doctors had explained, if she had've been older, she most likely wouldn't have recovered nearly as much.

* * *

**_TBC..._**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Veronica Mars or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.**_

_**Thanks for the reviews!**_

_**Enjoy  
**_

* * *

**Chapter 5**

When Veronica came home, Keith was expecting her to be happy, relieved to be out of the hospital settings, but in the first week she barely left her room, refused to do any of the exercises she had been prescribed, barely ate.

Keith still believed that Veronica wasn't herself, that she had changed, and she had, just not the way he thought she had.

He missed that she was severely depressed, everyone did.

* * *

It got easier, a little.

Veronica started to do things again. She had only been out of the hospital for a few weeks, and she was walking on the beach, it was late in the evening, she had already had dinner with her father and co, and had decided to take a walk.

She was replying heavily on a cane, she'd tried previously, but her walker couldn't go on the sand.

It was a calm night, the weather had been hot all week, but it had just that afternoon begun to cool down. The sun was setting, Veronica was admiring the sight of the sun setting in the horizon, when she was attacked from behind, she had no chance to react, to protect herself, to see the attack coming.

The attacker shoved her to the ground, and kicked her in the side, before grabbing her bag, and running away.

Veronica was lying there, stunned, when she felt a gentle hand on her elbow, at first she was fearful, what if the attacker had come back? But then as she turned over, and it wasn't until she had turned over fully, and she was no longer staring at sand, she saw that Weevil squatting beside her, holding her bag.

"You gotta be more careful, V. You keep walking around on that thing and every thug in town's gonna mug you, and I ain't always gonna be here to get your stuff back."

Weevil was expecting some sort of witty remark, but instead.

In that moment Veronica forgot herself, she forgot that she could no longer speak easily, and when she spoke, all that came out was a slurred, incomprehensible mix of sounds.

"What the hell, V?! You okay?" It was only when Weevil looked closer at Veronica that he noticed that she had barely made an attempt to sit up, let alone stand, one side of her face was lax, and the cuts she'd gotten from the windshield had not fully faded, the scars were littering her face, and there was a long surgical scar through her hair, which her hair couldn't quite cover.

Of course he knew that Veronica had been in the accident, he didn't live under a rock, but when he heard she was back in town, he had thought that she must have been better, back to her old self.

Veronica again opened her mouth to speak, but this time she stopped herself. Instead extending her hand to Weevil, asking for a hand up, Weevil helped her without pause, and without letting go, sensing Veronica unease, he picked her cane up off the ground, and gave it back to her.

Not knowing what was going on, or what to do, Weevil asked Veronica, "Do you want a lift home? My bike's up on the road."

At the very mention of getting on a vehicle, Veronica felt a panic attack coming on, she was powerless to stop it as her breathing sped up, her heart started to pound, her skin got cold and clammy.

Weevil made a grab for her as Veronica began falling, he was freaking out, he had no idea what was happening, he had only offered her a ride.

Once Veronica was safely on the ground, Weevil, knowing he was in over his head, he retrieved Veronica's phone from her bag, and searched out Keith's number, which he dialled without pause.

Keith must have seen Veronica's number pop up, because he answered on the first ring, "Veronica."

"Keith, it's Eli," Weevil corrected him, before saying, "You've gotta come, man. I met Veronica on the beach, I offered her a ride home, and she started freaking out."

As soon as he heard this, Keith told Weevil, "I'll be right there. Just try to calm her down, get her to breathe. I'll explain everything. Thank you."

* * *

Veronica was still in full blown panic attack, when Keith arrived ten minutes later, and Weevil looked nothing like a tough as nails, dangerous former member of the PCH gang.

Keith ignored Weevil as he knelt down beside Veronica. He placed a hand on her back, and spoke to her soothingly, while he retrieved a pill bottle from his pocket and shook out one pill.

Keith had to place the pill in Veronica's mouth, and put an open drink bottle to her lips to have her swallow it, she choked and spluttered, but it worked, and she swallowed the pill.

* * *

Within minutes Veronica began to calm down, her breathing slowed, she sat up straighter, and looked over to her father questioningly, pleadingly.

"It's okay, honey. You had a panic attack, but you're alright," Keith reassured her, "Just take a few minutes. I've got to talk to Eli."

Keith stepped away from his daughter, and pulled Weevil aside.

As soon as they were out of Veronica's hearing distance, Weevil started demanding answers. "What the hell was that?!"

"A panic attack, she's been getting them since the accident, we can't take her in a car, on the bus, anything like that without a mild sedative," Keith explained, before he asked, "How'd you meet her? She wandered off a couple of hours ago, we've been out of our minds worrying, it isn't safe for her."

"What are you talking about? Since when is Veronica, who unless I'm wrong is an adult, not allowed to leave the house?" Weevil questioned.

Keith paused, glancing over at Veronica, before with sadness in his voice, he explained to Weevil, what he believed to be the truth, "Since she suffered a severe brain injury. Her speech, thinking, walking, other things, have been affected. She isn't the same ...she's not the same person she was before the accident. Believe it or not she is doing much better than she was, she was in a coma for nine weeks, rehab for nearly six months, she only came home a couple of days ago."

Weevil scrubbed his jaw, "Shit."

"It's been hard. I need to take her home, thank you."

Keith went back over to Veronica, and he helped her stand. They walked back over to the car, and left, leaving Weevil to contemplate what he had just seen.

* * *

Duncan Kane, heir to billions, who gave it all up for his daughter, Lily. After fleeing the country to escape Lily's grandparents, who had emotionally abused their children, Duncan took Lily to Australia, the small town of Mollymook on the south coast of the state of New South Wales.

They had been living there in peace for nearly five years, the only contact Duncan had with his old life in the States was through the head of security at Kane Software, his father's company, Clarence Weidman, and the girl who'd helped him escape, Veronica Mars.

There was little contact with Clarence, but Duncan and Veronica often spoke, and when it was eight months since their last chat.

The last time he had called her, Veronica and several friends were planning a end of break trip to Las Vegas, she was about to start her final year of college, and was very busy with the PI business.

At first Duncan was uneasy after two months, worried after five, panicked after six months, after eight months he couldn't take the uncertainty any longer, something was wrong, the last time they'd been out of contact for so long was straight after he had left the country, they had needed to avoid contact until the feds stopped looking.

After he dropped Lily off at school, Duncan drove two hours north to Nowra, a town populated enough that he could buy and had bought numerous prepaid phones without drawing suspicion.

He went halfway back to Mollymook before he made the call. First he called Veronica's cell, a recorded message said that the phone was out of service, it wasn't that unexpected, he could sense that something was wrong, but it did shake Duncan, next he called Clarence Weidman, he answered quickly.

"CW."

"We shouldn't speak, what do you need?"

"Veronica, do you know where she is? She hasn't called in months."

There was a long pause before Clarence asked, "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

There was a long pause, before the head of Kane Security, the only tie beside Veronica that Duncan had to his old life, informed Duncan, "There was an accident, must be about seven odd months ago now. A group of students from Hearst College got in an accident up near LA. Veronica was hurt, the papers said she was in a coma, severe head injury from what I understand, she was the only survivor. You shouldn't call again."

Duncan couldn't speak, he ended the call. And climbed back into his car, as soon as he was in the car, out of view, he broke down.

Veronica was his first love, his true love, was most likely lying some hospital, or dead.

What was he supposed to do with that information, simple, he drove back to Mollymook, arriving just in time to pick Lily up from school, he had no choice but to go on with his life, maybe one day he would find out for sure what happened to her, but there was nothing he could do either way, he couldn't go back, all that would get him was a prison sentence, throughout which he would know that his daughter was being abused by her grandparents.

It would be nearly a year before he spoke to Veronica again.

* * *

Veronica struggled with her grief for many months, to this day it still hurt to think about her lost friends. The friends she couldn't save.

She hadn't gone back to work, or college for that matter. Usually her day consisted of getting up, getting dressed, then walking over to Neptune Crematorium and Cemetery, where she would spend her day sitting in the memorial garden that had been built in memory of the crash victims, their families had scattered their ashes, but there was still a memorial plaque in the garden for each of them, only when it was getting dark would she walk home.

She never told anyone that she did remember the accident, well more like flashes of it. They stopped her from moving on, how could she when she truly believed that she could have saved them, if she had have seen Logan falling asleep sooner, she could've taken control of the car, pulled it over, but she had closed her eyes, and because she hadn't seen Logan falling asleep, they were all dead.

She couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't died too.

* * *

People would come by every now and again, try to break Veronica out of her depression, get her to go see a movie, come back to college, even just for one class, anything.

But the answer for many months was no, all Veronica wanted to do was mourn her friends.

* * *

Dick's response to the tragedy was much the same, only he was doing his grieving in a drug and alcohol rehab centre.

After the initial days, which he spent sobering up, Dick withdrew into himself, that was until someone asked him about Mac, then he flew over the handlebars, so help anyone who asked.

Apart from that couple of days he opened up, Dick just did his time there, and told the shrinks what they needed to help to release him.

* * *

The day Dick left the rehab, he caught a bus back to Neptune, his mother had most likely forgotten he existed by now, she hadn't even left him money or, well anything, he'd had to practically beg someone in reception to give him bus fare.

He didn't go back to the apartment, he couldn't, not yet.

He hadn't gone to see Mac's plaque in the memorial garden earlier, nor the clifftop her parents scattered her ashes from, seeing it made her death too real, too clear that she was gone, never coming back.

But that day he went to the cemetery, found his way to the garden.

As he approached, he heard someone speaking, a woman, her voice somewhat distorted, he stopped walking and strained to hear what she was saying.

"....I'm so sorry, you know that, I should've saved you, I could've saved you."

"Veronica..." Dick said shocked, her moved closer to see her sitting on a park bench at the edge of the garden, looking towards the plaques, a walking frame next to her, her right arm in a sling, flaccid.

Veronica looked up, and saw Dick standing there, she made no effort to stand, before she said, "I haven't seen you around."

It took Dick a second to adjust to hearing her altered speech, understanding it. "Rehab. Mom got pissed about me drinking. I'd just lost my girlfriend, my baby, and she got pissed that I was drinking."

"A baby?"

"Mac was pregnant, no one really knew." Dick joined Veronica on the bench, they both were staring at the ground.

"I didn't know. Sorry."

"I thought you were dead."

"Not quite."

"After you know, reading that my girlfriend was dead, I didn't get too far past that."

"Why're you here?"

"I dunno. Why're you here?"

"I'm here every day."

"Why?"

"I could've saved them. No matter how much people want me to move on, I can't just forget that."

"What do you mean?"

"No one else knows this, not even my dad. I remember the crash, all of it. We were trying to get back for classes, we'd stayed late at this theme park at one of the casinos. We'd been drinking, none of us should've been driving. I could see Logan falling asleep, I wanted to find somewhere to spend the night, but he said he was okay. I guess I fell asleep, I woke up when the car swerved. Everyone but us was sleeping. I looked at Logan, and he was asleep, I tried to grab the wheel, get control, but..."

"But you couldn't."

"I tried to help them, I called 911, but I couldn't move to get to anyone, I could only just see Logan. I could hear some of them..."

"Mac? Did she suffer?"

"I didn't hear Mac, I don't know. I heard Jackie, Logan at first. I couldn't do anything."

"I haven't really heard what happened, first I was drunk, then the shrinks didn't think I was ready to hear it."

"No one really told me either. Back in the hospital, Dad told me they were gone, he never said details. Far as the police know I don't remember it, so they didn't talk to me."

"Before... Was Mac happy?"

"We'd had a great time in Vegas, as we were leaving, we got this guy to take a picture of us in front of the Vegas sign. There were lots of pictures on my camera... I don't know where it is, it probably got smashed."

* * *

**_TBC..._**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Veronica Mars or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.**_

_**Thanks for the reviews!**_

_**Enjoy  
**_

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Veronica and Dick sat there, in the garden for hours, talking, just sitting quietly. Eventually it grew dark, and they had to head off, the gates locked at nine pm.

Dick suggested calling a cab, but Veronica, somehow managing to keep her calm, said, "I walk. Cars... it's just..."

In what pre-crash Dick would have been a rare moment of understanding, he replied, "That's cool."

"Are you headed back to Hearst? Your apartment?"

"No cash, ID, any of that shit, I'll figure it out."

"Come stay at my place tonight, it's not too far from here."

Dick hadn't wanted to accept her invitation, but it was a better offer than sleeping on a park bench, so he could hitch back to campus tomorrow, and beg the admin staff to hand over the spare key without him showing ID.

* * *

Keith and Alicia had been surprised to see Dick come home with Veronica, but they didn't question Veronica offering her late fiancé's best friend the couch.

* * *

Keith gave Dick a ride back to Hearst Campus the next morning, where Dick went back to his apartment, after spending the better part of an hour confirming his identity to the admin people.

He wasn't shocked to see that it had been cleaned, he was pissed off to see that his mother had cleared out the alcohol, but mostly he was saddened, seeing photos of him and Mac, an ultrasound picture stuck to the fridge, it was a reminder he didn't need.

But he was starting to get his life back, and as easy as it would have been to go the liquor store around the corner, Dick was determined to keep going. Mac would've been pissed as hell if she saw what Dick was doing.

* * *

The next day, Veronica and Keith were up early, Veronica could never sleep for more than a couple of hours, and Keith was back at work now, he had to be in the office early.

They were eating cereal, when Veronica asked, "My camera, do you know where it is? The one I had before."

"I suppose it's in holding up at LA police, they would have everything they salvaged from the car. Why do you want it?"

"Dick asked if Mac was happy, if we'd had a good time. I remembered the pictures we took. Can you..."

"I'll make some calls, see what they've got, get it sent down here if I can, maybe the camera's in amongst everything else. You can see if there's anything you want to keep."

* * *

It had taken some talking, but three days later every personal item from the car, that hadn't been collected by the other victims' families, but that had mostly only been jewellery, watches, wallets, other things found on the bodies, was delivered to the county sheriff's department. The accident had been ruled just that, and as a result, the contents of the car was released from evidence.

Keith had it all placed in an interrogation room, and invited Dick and Veronica to look through it, see if there was anything of Veronica's or Mac's, anything they might want.

* * *

They spent eight hours there, searching through the assorted possessions, it was a sombre affair. Most of the clothes and other things that had been in the suitcases, in the trunk were ruined, petrol and blood soaked, Keith had given them biohazard bags, as well as trash bags, and Dick quickly put the greater majority of the clothes, along with the bags they had been in, into biohazard bags.

Veronica mostly watched as Dick worked, it was hard for her to sit on the floor, instead she was at the table, going through two cardboard boxes of items that had been found loose in the car.

Most of the boxes' contents were trash, take away wrappers, soft drink cans, empty beer bottles and bottles of spirits, also empty, receipts. But there were some things of note, handbags, CDs, laughably a pathetically small first aid kit.

Veronica was nearly at the bottom of the second box, when she found her bag, which still held her phone, wallet, camera, other bits and pieces. The outside of the bag was covered in blood, she threw it in the bag to be thrown away, but she put the contents of the bag, what of it she wanted to keep into another box, labelled "KEEP". The box also held a few bits and pieces of belonging to her friends.

Out of everything that had been in the trunk, the only things that Dick kept were the contents of a couple of bags, mostly souvenirs.

Through the time it took to sort out the car's contents out, Dick and Veronica remained mostly silent. Once they finished though, and Dick was carrying the three meagre boxes of salvageable items out to his car, he asked Veronica, "Did you find anything?"

* * *

Veronica was doing alright, it wasn't easy to go through her friends and her bloodied possessions, but when she found the bag that the hospital had placed her clothes, etc that she had been wearing at the time of the accident, complete with her engagement ring, it more than she could handle.

It was eighteen carat white gold, flawless one point five carat princess cut diamond set between two smaller matching diamonds. It was everything Veronica hated, big and showy, the Veronica Logan knew before Lily's death would have loved it, and that was why Logan had selected that very ring.

And for that, Veronica had loved the ring.

Veronica broke down, into tears at the sight of the ring. Dick comforted her until she stopped crying, and when she did, she slipped her engagement ring back on her finger.

"We were getting married, we were supposed to get married," Veronica said with sadness in her voice, wiping the tears out of her eyes.

* * *

When they returned to the Mars' apartment, Dick joined Keith, Alicia and Darrell for dinner, while Veronica headed into her room to search for the cable for her camera to put the photos onto her laptop, it was only after she had searched her entire room that she remembered that the cable was back at the apartment Logan and her had shared.

Veronica thought briefly of asking someone else to go, but after thinking for a minute, she made the choice to go by herself, it was time.

Veronica told her father that she was going for a walk, and that she would be back soon, and she walked out the front door.

* * *

Their apartment was ten minute walk, it was in a block of ten, it wasn't so much an apartment as a luxury townhouse, standing at three storeys, four bedrooms, all with ensuites, three living areas, a library, and massive kitchen.

Quietly, the reason Logan had bought it was the home theatre, complete with a forty inch high definition plasma screen, and state of the art surround sound system.

It still seemed ridiculous to Veronica, who needed a full cinema in their home?

Walking through that door, going back into the home she and Logan had planned to make a life in, it felt as though nothing had changed, as though it was back before the accident, and Logan was just not home, it felt the same as it did before the accident, as though nothing had changed, but in reality, for Veronica everything had.

It took her only minutes to find the cable she needed, but it was three hours before she returned to the apartment.

* * *

After they'd gone over the 'been worried sick' and 'you should've called', Veronica connected her computer up to the TV, and started showing her father, Alicia, Darrell, and Dick the pictures that she'd taken on the roadtrip, that her friends had taken.

They were the classic holiday snaps, one handed photos of usually two or three of them, arms around each other, laughing and having a great time, some of them

* * *

After that night, after seeing the photos, and remembering her friends, really remembering what they had been like, Veronica came to a realisation.

And that was, that yes her friends died, and she didn't want to keep going with them gone, but if they had seen what she was doing with her life, feeling sorry for herself, unable to move on, they would've been mad as hell, because she was alive and they weren't, and she should be living her life, for them if not herself.

It was that realisation that led Veronica to, ten months after the accident, leave everything, and fly to Australia, to see Duncan, to break away from her pain. Her father had been apprehensive about her going so far away, in light of the accident and her disabilities resulting from that accident.

But Veronica knew that it was what she needed to do.

* * *

With only a duffel bag, Veronica got on a plane, and went to Australia. She hadn't told Duncan that she was coming, she had seen Clarence Weidman the week before, and he had given her Duncan's current address.

* * *

Duncan Kane had been sitting at the kitchen table with his daughter, helping her with her reading homework, when the doorbell rang.

He noticed a rental car parked out the front as he walked to the door.

* * *

Veronica was still uncomfortable driving, but upon reaching Australia, more like the small towns, you just had to drive to get to these places, up til then she had remained in Neptune, and she could just walk most places, but there it just wasn't an option, from the international airport in Sydney to Duncan's house in Mollymook it was a two and a half hour drive, and by the time she got into town, she had to take a hour long break to settle herself, before she went on to Duncan's house.

The door opened, and Veronica swore that Duncan nearly hit the floor.

Since hearing news of Veronica's devastating accident, he had honestly thought that he would never see her again, but here she was, seemingly fine except for her clear physical disabilities.

She was leaning heavily on a four pronged cane, her right arm being supported by a sling, the right side of her face was lax, and there were still scars littering her face, and a surgical scar, but at least now she'd had her hair styled in a way which covered that scar, along with several of the others.

"Hi Duncan."

Duncan remained silent, stunned.

"I'm not dead. I know Weidman told you about the accident, did you know that I was alive?"

"I didn't, all I knew was that you'd been hurt, that it was bad."

"It was, it is. Can I come in?"

* * *

**_TBC..._**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Veronica Mars or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.**_

_**Thanks for the reviews!**_

**_Enjoy the (too short) final chapter!_**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Of course Duncan let her in, his ex-girlfriend, his first love, Veronica, whom lived in the United States, whom he wasn't even sure was still alive had turned up on his doorstep. How could he not?

Of course Lily didn't know who Veronica was, Duncan only had one photo of the four of them, it was hidden in a false base of his dresser drawer, along with several other small mementos he'd kept, and Lily had only been days old when Veronica had helped flee the country with his daughter.

As they walked into the house, Duncan put his arm around his daughter, saying, "Lils, this is an old friend of mine, Veronica. Veronica, this is Lily."

"She's grown a bit."

"Just a bit, she's just started year one at school."

* * *

Veronica and Duncan continued polite conversation, ignoring the elephant in the room, the accident, but hours later after Lily had gone to bed, and Veronica and Duncan were relaxing on the back deck, drinks in hand, Duncan finally asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"The accident?"

"Yeah, what happened? I read a few of the news stories, but I don't really know."

"Okay... What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Everything, okay. Me and Logan, Wallace and Jackie, Mac, a couple of our friends from Hearst, we went to Vegas for the weekend, we'd been drinking, it was late, Logan fell asleep at the wheel, we hit a tree, the car rolled. I lived, they died. I was in a coma for nine weeks, rehab for six months, I had a fractured skull, some brain damage, a ruptured spleen, and a broken arm. I'm doing pretty well now though, at least I can speak now, and walk."

"Shit, so it was... it was bad?"

"Yeah, it was bad. But now you know, so can we just forget about it? How's Lily?"

Duncan chose not to push her, instead opting to answer her question about his young daughter, "She's really good, she loves her school, according to her she must have twenty best friends."

* * *

They spent the next two weeks hanging out, not as a couple, just as friends, and after the stress, the emotional pain that being in Neptune caused her, being in Australia with Duncan was blissful, and it made Veronica wonder whether she would use the plane ticket she had back to the states.

Maybe it would be for the better for her to remain in Australia.

Duncan wasn't so keen on the idea, but.

"These two months, I've been happy, really happy for the first time since before the accident, being here with you and Lily, it feels right, and I don't want to go back," Veronica told Duncan, looking down at her engagement ring, twisting it around as she spoke.

* * *

And as Duncan knew, once Veronica had made her mind up, there was no changing it. Within the month Veronica found a small cottage, overlooking the Australian coastline, in Huskisson, about half an hour from Duncan's.

She enrolled at the local tafe, studying photography, she was no longer interested in spending her days studying, she nearly died, and now she was determined to really live her life.

Veronica replaced her old life with a more casual, leisurely lifestyle, she only worked casually as disability payments covered her expenses for the most part. Now and then she would still work as a PI, she had gotten her licence just months after gaining permanent residency status, but her main line of work was photography, working as a photographer at functions and events.

All in all her life after moving to Australia would be a quiet one, she remained in close touch with Duncan, and they visited each other often, and fourteen years after the move, before Veronica moved on from Logan, and took off the engagement ring that she had worn since finding it again, she met someone.

That someone was Dan West, a local fish and chip shop owner, and though he would never replace Logan, he did make Veronica happy, and they were good together, and together they ran the shop, side-by-side for many years.

They had three children together, Amy, Joel, and Kate, born within two years of each other, they had definitely kept Veronica busy, but she wouldn't have had it any other way.

Her ring would sit for years in a small velvet box in the top drawer of her bedside, and from time to time she would get it out, just to remember Logan, to feel the connection with him again.

Veronica managed to keep going.

* * *

_**The End**_


End file.
